which game would you buy for your kids? zelda was one of the original "great" games, next to final fantasy. and for kids, it's a great introduction to story telling games, which are becoming more and more rare now.
why such a feeling? even the second zelda didn't require you to go through the dungeons in order, but doing so would make life easier. I know, as a 6 year old, it was hard to do something else, but when I did it recently, it wasn't that hard to do it out of order....
which rpg did you used to play that is so deep and rich you can't play it now? how often did those games come out? what, are you the guy who recalls diablo and believes every game should be of equal quality?
only if you are so closed minded you can't find a single game where a different interface would improve gaming.... for example all games you used to play in the arcade as a kid (unless you are too young to recall) that worked with control schematics different than a controller allows....
there is no proof this punishes savers. you need to look at the interest rate that is available. in high inflationary environments, interest rates are almost always much higher. In fact, the inflation of the late 70s was one of the most beneficial things for savers, leading to higher real yields for the next 20 years than the market had experienced in the previous 50 years. Net, savers were huge winners over that 30 year period vs any other time.
It's just ignorant people who only look at the price index that hold that view. Generally, the market, which are a group of savers, are brutally punishing to any economy that stings them with inflation.
while your analysis is decent, you do what most people who advocate inflation do, you ignore economic history. Over time, there have been many successful economies to operate in a deflationary environment, including America's economy for the majority of its history.
there is one reason why you want an inflationary environment with a fiat money system (by the way, these are not one and the same, there are a plethora of examples of an inflationary gold backed currency system): the existence of a central bank is believed to reduce or ameliorate the severity of a recession, as long as it doesn't act like a complete fool as they did in the 1930s. Everything else you wrote is not supported by the evidence.
isn't there both a strike and slow down in progress by the unions? I've read figures that the dispute has cost quantus like 16 million dollars a week before this lockout.
are you stuck thinking everyone with an iphone is on an iphone 4? my wife have an iphone 3g (no "s") and it lags so severely on iOS 4 she couldn't upgrade. This means an entire class of apps are out of reach adn the usability of the product is impaired (even if she upgrades to iOS 4, it's bad from a speed perspective). Just like computers, new apps and hardware make a new phone worthwhile. your windows 95 box can still surf the web, check email, etc. why not stick with it?
I'm wondering, how do you measure luxury? The impreza, at the top end, is more than 1/2 of the price of the 300 mile range model S but with what looks like a far lower quality navigation and enetertainment system, lower quality seats for a luxury sedan, is slower by a few tenths, with wheels that would cost about 5k to reach the same level. In my mind the Impreza adds up to a shadow of the other car, with every feature just slightly lower on the totem pole.
of course, the model S isn't out there to be tested or checked so these numbers could be off. I am just taking what i can find from multiple sources and it is unclear what the faster model S will cost. the impreza has the unfortunate requirement that it exists, and so it is quite obvious in what ways it may be lacking compared to a paper car.
what ridiculousness are you talking about? The US has always been run by the landed wealthy. The only difference now instead of owning thousands of acres and (for quite a few of the most powerful), hundreds of slaves, we now have leaders that own shares of stock.
The US has never been a middle or lower class country where those folks somehow get elected. And frankly, there isn't a single country that ever did it to my knowledge.
the real problem is people have been duped into thinking we somehow elected middle or lower class people to political office at some mysterious point in our history.
The US is a country that was founded by the wealthy elite. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that; I think our history is unique. But let's get our own history right.
which earthquake broke all records? the march quake didn't even come close,except in nominal dollar damage. The worst was the Great Tokyo quake with over 100k dead. And Japan's earthquakes are not generally known for incredible strength, those being in Chile, Alaska and Sumatra.
so 2 blu-rays streaming means I've already maxed out (by a wide margin) some of the fastest connections in the US or Japan, and this is assuming 0 network overhead. so I can watch a movie and my wife can watch a movie almost simultaneously right now, and you are assuming I'm not downloading anything off the web at any time during this, including computer updates. I may not be able to fill 1 gbps right now all the time, but hte burst to max speed would be useful and I've never seen an advertised line actually perform better than 30% on normal days, maybe 50% on the good days). I don't want my normal usage case to cause my network to sweat, I don't care to be up near the limit. I want to get near the limit when I'm trying to download the entire Dr. Who series or some other use case.
I have 2 computers, a ps3, and a wii connected to the net. even if I am doing something simple like streaming a movie from one computer to the ps3 to watch on my tv while someone else is playing a game online, downloading something or the other, or just generally using the web to watch anything in HD, I could easily find a use for that bandwidth.
I agree, I've disliked most apple products for a while, but recently they have led the market. the trackpads are much better (and I'm comparing to a high end vaio, not some piece of crap dell or hp), the screen quality is miles ahead, I like having multiple desktops built it (and yes, I know, I had them on fedora like 8 years ago), and I like that the laptop keyboard doesn't flex when I type and the case is solid. and then what sold me is when apple says 8 hours of battery life, I've gotten 7+ many times. When sony said 15 hours of battery life if you buy the sheet battery, I was dying around 5. wtf? 33% of claim vs basically 100% of claim? and with the mac I'm surfing the web over wireless with around 40% brightness while with the vaio I was doing nothing, wireless off, no programs open, and the screen 1 level above black.
and yeah, it cost about 500 bucks more, but then, I got a warranty on the parts that travels internationally with me and as I'm likely to be posted to 1 or 2 different continents over the next 3 years (outside the US), this is huge. especially because vibration damage happens when traveling as much as I do.
oh, and the multiple users being so seemlessly switched vs windows is just huge between my wife and I, who have huge differences in tastes.
I had a macbook in 2006 and it was a piece of crap. I hated and immediately, built my own windows box 6 months later, and swore I'd never buy a mac. this generation is lightyears ahead. I actualy bought the vaio and returned it when I saw how terrible it was in use. then broke down and tried the apple, took me about 10 minutes to be sold on purely technical needs.
now, if anyone knows how to build a hackintosh desktop at the top end, I'd be interested to read up on it. because I think I'm done with windows now.
I'm confused, because a bunch of US based sites and US laws treat a tomato as a vegetable, the entire world and all chefs everywhere now agree with you?
look, I agree, America is basically always right. but I'm pretty sure it's not a coherent or complete argument. nothing technical involved. anyways, as the websites (at least the few I opened) said, it is "used as a vegetable", not, "it is a vegetable".
wow, just a few quick points. I don't have the time to contradict the labor lawyers drivel or the rest on every point. I also cant' tell what is mass quoted from a book or website or your own words so it makes it much harder.
first: just because you don't value what occurs in finance doesn't mean others don't. honestly, who are you to decide what services others want to pay for?
second: according to the OECD, americans are not the most productive in the world, but we come very close. The Dutch beat us out by a rounding error (0.1%) and the germans trail us by about 10.5%.
third: just because some German may not understand why a particular job requires more than 40 hours doesn't mean all Germans, and most importantly, informed Germans don't know why this is. Many Germans work longer than 40 hours in a week and many work longer hours than I do. Those who require only 40 hour weeks and 6 weeks of vacation in order to eat properly, exercise, and live healthy are simply without diligence or discipline. I'ts pretty easy to do this until you cross the 100 hour mark, but I can't think of a profession that does this for many years.
fourth: just because the student doesn't pay for a college doesn't mean it doesn't contribute to GDP. Whoever said this obviously has no clue how GDP is calculated and is conveniently ignoring the fact that SOMEONE is paying for your trip to that school and most likely, it adds to the "government spending" section (unless it is private donations).
fifth: nothing stops anyone in the US from joining or living in a Basque style or Amish style world. Just as no one forces you to visit an MD, you can consult with any crackpot if you wish. I could try to envision the freedom of doing either as some intricate corporate overload scheme to make me miserable, but I just can't....
yes, because joe plumber can become a doctor? can become a lawyer? can become larry page?
the naivety of your view can be astounding, though I'm sure you were joking. others can't take those jobs because they are incapable. if they were capable, they would be hired as trainees (go to medical school, law school, etc). most aren't. It also ignores the fact that most top earners work longer hours in a year that most people do in 2-3 years. I know my current boss easily works 15 hour days during the week and probably an extra 20 during the weekends. and hwen we are busy, very few of us work less than 18 hour days and then do research on the weekends. We just went through a period like that.
to give a brief example of how you can get into the top pay brackets: a junior at an investment bank generally works 110 hours a week (I've heard up to 120-130 but let's use a more conservative number). In your 3rd year, you can expect to get paid 250k dollars per year, a lot by any standards. let's turn that into hourly wages given current laws (so time and a half for hours of 40). this means that in a week, 110 hours becomes 40+70*1.5 or 145 hours. if you work 50 weeks, you are earning 5k/week. or an exorbitant 35 dollars per hour. even better, 30-40% of your income will be in long term stock that, given the market for bank stocks, has decimated this return. that 40% of your income might be 20% down by the time you can cash it, so you are earning closer to 32 dollars per hour.
I could do similar math for doctors. In the 70s in new york, a resident earned 20k/year but worked 120 hours per week. see how many people want those "good jobs". Sure, it leads to being a doctor, but it requires years of study and then several years of work for tiny amounts of money.
you also realize that before 1913 the entire federal government was basically funded by sales taxes, right? import duties are absolutely sales taxes. we spent most of our history funding our government that way. I could say I want to go back to the great economy of the 1880s by abolishing all these income taxes, end standing armies, end medicare, end SS, end medicaid, etc. and I bet you won't agree with me.
you are right though, that corporate income tax has fallen dramatically and that is an issue that should be addressed diligently. but this is also a problem of an international corporation and how you tax the gains not earned in this country. we generally do a very bad job of this. but every country in the world has that problem. we'd do alot better in the case of companies like GE making worldwide income taxable but at a low rate (say, 10%) or allow the current system with the change that deferred tax bills by holding gains overseas must come due after X number of years.
I'm not defending republicans or democrats. as I've said before, both are a large group of morons with a few bright lights in there. but that doesn't mean that a 91% income tax does us very much good. it does help level income and wealth, but by discouraging the generation of wealth and income. I'm pretty sure that doesn't help things for anyone and the wealthy remain well enough off. They just don't help generate any jobs for everyone else who can't do those jobs.
you could do a wealth tax, as that website discusses. I didn't read it all, but switzerland does have a wealth tax, but they also have very low income taxes (negotiable rates for the top earners) and actively recruit multi millionaires and billionaires to the country and encourage them to keep as much of their income as possible. but it's a terrible idea because it strongly discourages saving, which would have helped us a lot in the recent crisis. Switzerland does it by making it optional (vs either a multiple of your monthly rent or an income tax).
My main point though, is messing with taxes messes with people's reasons to really work hard. with a 90% tax rate, you don't help anyone, you only encourage the wealthy to not try as hard and not generate as much economic activity. that hurts everyone.
what market protections did gramm leach bliley remove? preventing 2 companies from merging was hardly our issue in this last run up. Citi failed because the bank invested it's excess cash in bad securities. I'm not sure how not having an insurance arm would have changed that. And the existence of AIG, Fannie, Freddie, Lehman, ML, Bear, etc would have been completely legal before the act as well.
so we spent our first 130 years of history without any dynamic changes (you know, before income tax)? It must have been.
I also hope you know that the top 0.1% and the top 10% pay more of the total federal income tax burden today than they did in your heyday of 91% marginal tax rates. So if anything, we have increased the progressiveness. (here is the current breakdown: http://ntu.org/tax-basics/who-pays-income-taxes.html). Hell, the top 1% pay more now than they did in 2000 with higher capital gains taxes, higher income taxes, and an economic boom going on. They paid more in 2005 after 2 bush tax cuts which everyone claims mainly went to the wealthy. If net/net, cutting taxes the way bush did increases the proportion of total income taxes paid by the wealthiest, I'd say it's anything but a "giveaway" and actually realized a bit more of the liberal dream.
I'm not sure about others, but in my small group I work with, I know many, many people would walk away from the job if the top rates went back to 91%. I definitely would. That just reduces economic output and removes top performers from a lot of jobs, making the economy less dynamic. Now if you want to get more equality in income by just discouraging people from earning >x, wouldn't it be easier to just say X is the limit of what anyone can be paid for doing anything?
why 1776? her quote was something along the lines of "we haven't won yet, we can't party like it's 1773". My first thought was "what year did the revolutionary war end? 1783, I think she just missed it by a decade. that she is stupid nad the liberal commentators are equally stupid isn't very heartening. nor does it matter all that much.
and didn't she attempt to imply that by being able to see russia from a random island in alaska gave her foreign policy credentials? When bush was coming from texas, he could literally make that argument with illegal aliens and heavy trade with Mexico. I'm not sure what her logic was.
I work with a bunch of pretty wealthy people (the lowest compensated is around 200k per year) and of the 10 or so people in my group with an iphone, every single one of them has jail broken it for tethering, mobile hotspot usage, or many other apps that are not in the app store. I'm not saying many of these things can't be done now without jailbreaking, but often they cost a lot more and feel like quite the rip off.
I only mention their money because you may say they are nerds with too much time on their hands or are very cheap, but that isn't the case.
Just because you can't find a reason or surround yourself with people that don't doesn't mean it isn't a popular way to get some decent features on the iphone.
I will actually be not upgrading my phone from now until I switch to android because of this, granted I have had several reasons for the android switch recently and this is just one more. I'm sure it will be worked around but it isn't very meaningful to have to fight to use my phone in reasonable ways.
no no, put on your jobs-ophile glasses and you will notice that when quartz has a pixel become blue, it is a richer, warmer, more beautiful blue than when any other product does it.
wow, you are absolutely wrong. I am american, just checked the site, and ran most slavic language countries. Belarus was the only one where Opera had major pentration. Any particular reason they should be considered? For most countries, it was Firefox, with Chrome and IE splitting the diff. Opera was some meaningless 4th.
are you sure your color blindness didn't have you confusing firefox's orange with Opera's red on the site? I think you confused the two browsers is all and I could see that happening (had a boss who was color blind and his spreadsheets and programs had really weird colors).
can you name a single corporate piece of software that has broken because the web browser was upgraded? I can't, not since sites started being standards compliant and not worrying about internet explorer. And those are all internal.
If you have so much trouble running a desktop rollout when the web browser upgrades, you should probably think about quitting and going somewhere not full of incompetence (or you are a source of the incompetence, both are equally possible).
Here is the easy solution so you don't have to complain and stick your users with a POS browser: have IE and firefox on there, where IE is used for those few shitty times when you absolutely need a POS browser because you have coded for non-compliant browsers. That is what we used to do in my firm, and then some idiot in IT got all huffy about how firefox wasn't "proper" and how some internal sites couldn't be run on it (you know, the sites that people access 5% of the time for one off purposes) and we lost a useful fast web browser.
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which game would you buy for your kids? zelda was one of the original "great" games, next to final fantasy. and for kids, it's a great introduction to story telling games, which are becoming more and more rare now.
why such a feeling? even the second zelda didn't require you to go through the dungeons in order, but doing so would make life easier. I know, as a 6 year old, it was hard to do something else, but when I did it recently, it wasn't that hard to do it out of order....
which rpg did you used to play that is so deep and rich you can't play it now? how often did those games come out? what, are you the guy who recalls diablo and believes every game should be of equal quality?
only if you are so closed minded you can't find a single game where a different interface would improve gaming.... for example all games you used to play in the arcade as a kid (unless you are too young to recall) that worked with control schematics different than a controller allows....
there is no proof this punishes savers. you need to look at the interest rate that is available. in high inflationary environments, interest rates are almost always much higher. In fact, the inflation of the late 70s was one of the most beneficial things for savers, leading to higher real yields for the next 20 years than the market had experienced in the previous 50 years. Net, savers were huge winners over that 30 year period vs any other time.
It's just ignorant people who only look at the price index that hold that view. Generally, the market, which are a group of savers, are brutally punishing to any economy that stings them with inflation.
while your analysis is decent, you do what most people who advocate inflation do, you ignore economic history. Over time, there have been many successful economies to operate in a deflationary environment, including America's economy for the majority of its history.
there is one reason why you want an inflationary environment with a fiat money system (by the way, these are not one and the same, there are a plethora of examples of an inflationary gold backed currency system): the existence of a central bank is believed to reduce or ameliorate the severity of a recession, as long as it doesn't act like a complete fool as they did in the 1930s. Everything else you wrote is not supported by the evidence.
isn't there both a strike and slow down in progress by the unions? I've read figures that the dispute has cost quantus like 16 million dollars a week before this lockout.
are you stuck thinking everyone with an iphone is on an iphone 4? my wife have an iphone 3g (no "s") and it lags so severely on iOS 4 she couldn't upgrade. This means an entire class of apps are out of reach adn the usability of the product is impaired (even if she upgrades to iOS 4, it's bad from a speed perspective). Just like computers, new apps and hardware make a new phone worthwhile. your windows 95 box can still surf the web, check email, etc. why not stick with it?
it happened to lightning mcqueen....
I'm wondering, how do you measure luxury? The impreza, at the top end, is more than 1/2 of the price of the 300 mile range model S but with what looks like a far lower quality navigation and enetertainment system, lower quality seats for a luxury sedan, is slower by a few tenths, with wheels that would cost about 5k to reach the same level. In my mind the Impreza adds up to a shadow of the other car, with every feature just slightly lower on the totem pole.
of course, the model S isn't out there to be tested or checked so these numbers could be off. I am just taking what i can find from multiple sources and it is unclear what the faster model S will cost. the impreza has the unfortunate requirement that it exists, and so it is quite obvious in what ways it may be lacking compared to a paper car.
what ridiculousness are you talking about? The US has always been run by the landed wealthy. The only difference now instead of owning thousands of acres and (for quite a few of the most powerful), hundreds of slaves, we now have leaders that own shares of stock.
The US has never been a middle or lower class country where those folks somehow get elected. And frankly, there isn't a single country that ever did it to my knowledge.
the real problem is people have been duped into thinking we somehow elected middle or lower class people to political office at some mysterious point in our history.
The US is a country that was founded by the wealthy elite. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that; I think our history is unique. But let's get our own history right.
which earthquake broke all records? the march quake didn't even come close ,except in nominal dollar damage. The worst was the Great Tokyo quake with over 100k dead. And Japan's earthquakes are not generally known for incredible strength, those being in Chile, Alaska and Sumatra.
so 2 blu-rays streaming means I've already maxed out (by a wide margin) some of the fastest connections in the US or Japan, and this is assuming 0 network overhead. so I can watch a movie and my wife can watch a movie almost simultaneously right now, and you are assuming I'm not downloading anything off the web at any time during this, including computer updates. I may not be able to fill 1 gbps right now all the time, but hte burst to max speed would be useful and I've never seen an advertised line actually perform better than 30% on normal days, maybe 50% on the good days). I don't want my normal usage case to cause my network to sweat, I don't care to be up near the limit. I want to get near the limit when I'm trying to download the entire Dr. Who series or some other use case.
I have 2 computers, a ps3, and a wii connected to the net. even if I am doing something simple like streaming a movie from one computer to the ps3 to watch on my tv while someone else is playing a game online, downloading something or the other, or just generally using the web to watch anything in HD, I could easily find a use for that bandwidth.
I agree, I've disliked most apple products for a while, but recently they have led the market. the trackpads are much better (and I'm comparing to a high end vaio, not some piece of crap dell or hp), the screen quality is miles ahead, I like having multiple desktops built it (and yes, I know, I had them on fedora like 8 years ago), and I like that the laptop keyboard doesn't flex when I type and the case is solid. and then what sold me is when apple says 8 hours of battery life, I've gotten 7+ many times. When sony said 15 hours of battery life if you buy the sheet battery, I was dying around 5. wtf? 33% of claim vs basically 100% of claim? and with the mac I'm surfing the web over wireless with around 40% brightness while with the vaio I was doing nothing, wireless off, no programs open, and the screen 1 level above black.
and yeah, it cost about 500 bucks more, but then, I got a warranty on the parts that travels internationally with me and as I'm likely to be posted to 1 or 2 different continents over the next 3 years (outside the US), this is huge. especially because vibration damage happens when traveling as much as I do.
oh, and the multiple users being so seemlessly switched vs windows is just huge between my wife and I, who have huge differences in tastes.
I had a macbook in 2006 and it was a piece of crap. I hated and immediately, built my own windows box 6 months later, and swore I'd never buy a mac. this generation is lightyears ahead. I actualy bought the vaio and returned it when I saw how terrible it was in use. then broke down and tried the apple, took me about 10 minutes to be sold on purely technical needs.
now, if anyone knows how to build a hackintosh desktop at the top end, I'd be interested to read up on it. because I think I'm done with windows now.
I'm confused, because a bunch of US based sites and US laws treat a tomato as a vegetable, the entire world and all chefs everywhere now agree with you?
look, I agree, America is basically always right. but I'm pretty sure it's not a coherent or complete argument. nothing technical involved. anyways, as the websites (at least the few I opened) said, it is "used as a vegetable", not, "it is a vegetable".
wow, just a few quick points. I don't have the time to contradict the labor lawyers drivel or the rest on every point. I also cant' tell what is mass quoted from a book or website or your own words so it makes it much harder.
first: just because you don't value what occurs in finance doesn't mean others don't. honestly, who are you to decide what services others want to pay for?
second: according to the OECD, americans are not the most productive in the world, but we come very close. The Dutch beat us out by a rounding error (0.1%) and the germans trail us by about 10.5%.
third: just because some German may not understand why a particular job requires more than 40 hours doesn't mean all Germans, and most importantly, informed Germans don't know why this is. Many Germans work longer than 40 hours in a week and many work longer hours than I do. Those who require only 40 hour weeks and 6 weeks of vacation in order to eat properly, exercise, and live healthy are simply without diligence or discipline. I'ts pretty easy to do this until you cross the 100 hour mark, but I can't think of a profession that does this for many years.
fourth: just because the student doesn't pay for a college doesn't mean it doesn't contribute to GDP. Whoever said this obviously has no clue how GDP is calculated and is conveniently ignoring the fact that SOMEONE is paying for your trip to that school and most likely, it adds to the "government spending" section (unless it is private donations).
fifth: nothing stops anyone in the US from joining or living in a Basque style or Amish style world. Just as no one forces you to visit an MD, you can consult with any crackpot if you wish. I could try to envision the freedom of doing either as some intricate corporate overload scheme to make me miserable, but I just can't....
yes, because joe plumber can become a doctor? can become a lawyer? can become larry page?
the naivety of your view can be astounding, though I'm sure you were joking. others can't take those jobs because they are incapable. if they were capable, they would be hired as trainees (go to medical school, law school, etc). most aren't. It also ignores the fact that most top earners work longer hours in a year that most people do in 2-3 years. I know my current boss easily works 15 hour days during the week and probably an extra 20 during the weekends. and hwen we are busy, very few of us work less than 18 hour days and then do research on the weekends. We just went through a period like that.
to give a brief example of how you can get into the top pay brackets:
a junior at an investment bank generally works 110 hours a week (I've heard up to 120-130 but let's use a more conservative number). In your 3rd year, you can expect to get paid 250k dollars per year, a lot by any standards. let's turn that into hourly wages given current laws (so time and a half for hours of 40). this means that in a week, 110 hours becomes 40+70*1.5 or 145 hours. if you work 50 weeks, you are earning 5k/week. or an exorbitant 35 dollars per hour. even better, 30-40% of your income will be in long term stock that, given the market for bank stocks, has decimated this return. that 40% of your income might be 20% down by the time you can cash it, so you are earning closer to 32 dollars per hour.
I could do similar math for doctors. In the 70s in new york, a resident earned 20k/year but worked 120 hours per week. see how many people want those "good jobs". Sure, it leads to being a doctor, but it requires years of study and then several years of work for tiny amounts of money.
you also realize that before 1913 the entire federal government was basically funded by sales taxes, right? import duties are absolutely sales taxes. we spent most of our history funding our government that way. I could say I want to go back to the great economy of the 1880s by abolishing all these income taxes, end standing armies, end medicare, end SS, end medicaid, etc. and I bet you won't agree with me.
you are right though, that corporate income tax has fallen dramatically and that is an issue that should be addressed diligently. but this is also a problem of an international corporation and how you tax the gains not earned in this country. we generally do a very bad job of this. but every country in the world has that problem. we'd do alot better in the case of companies like GE making worldwide income taxable but at a low rate (say, 10%) or allow the current system with the change that deferred tax bills by holding gains overseas must come due after X number of years.
I'm not defending republicans or democrats. as I've said before, both are a large group of morons with a few bright lights in there. but that doesn't mean that a 91% income tax does us very much good. it does help level income and wealth, but by discouraging the generation of wealth and income. I'm pretty sure that doesn't help things for anyone and the wealthy remain well enough off. They just don't help generate any jobs for everyone else who can't do those jobs.
you could do a wealth tax, as that website discusses. I didn't read it all, but switzerland does have a wealth tax, but they also have very low income taxes (negotiable rates for the top earners) and actively recruit multi millionaires and billionaires to the country and encourage them to keep as much of their income as possible. but it's a terrible idea because it strongly discourages saving, which would have helped us a lot in the recent crisis. Switzerland does it by making it optional (vs either a multiple of your monthly rent or an income tax).
My main point though, is messing with taxes messes with people's reasons to really work hard. with a 90% tax rate, you don't help anyone, you only encourage the wealthy to not try as hard and not generate as much economic activity. that hurts everyone.
what market protections did gramm leach bliley remove? preventing 2 companies from merging was hardly our issue in this last run up. Citi failed because the bank invested it's excess cash in bad securities. I'm not sure how not having an insurance arm would have changed that. And the existence of AIG, Fannie, Freddie, Lehman, ML, Bear, etc would have been completely legal before the act as well.
so we spent our first 130 years of history without any dynamic changes (you know, before income tax)? It must have been.
I also hope you know that the top 0.1% and the top 10% pay more of the total federal income tax burden today than they did in your heyday of 91% marginal tax rates. So if anything, we have increased the progressiveness. (here is the current breakdown: http://ntu.org/tax-basics/who-pays-income-taxes.html). Hell, the top 1% pay more now than they did in 2000 with higher capital gains taxes, higher income taxes, and an economic boom going on. They paid more in 2005 after 2 bush tax cuts which everyone claims mainly went to the wealthy. If net/net, cutting taxes the way bush did increases the proportion of total income taxes paid by the wealthiest, I'd say it's anything but a "giveaway" and actually realized a bit more of the liberal dream.
I'm not sure about others, but in my small group I work with, I know many, many people would walk away from the job if the top rates went back to 91%. I definitely would. That just reduces economic output and removes top performers from a lot of jobs, making the economy less dynamic. Now if you want to get more equality in income by just discouraging people from earning >x, wouldn't it be easier to just say X is the limit of what anyone can be paid for doing anything?
why 1776? her quote was something along the lines of "we haven't won yet, we can't party like it's 1773". My first thought was "what year did the revolutionary war end? 1783, I think she just missed it by a decade. that she is stupid nad the liberal commentators are equally stupid isn't very heartening. nor does it matter all that much.
and didn't she attempt to imply that by being able to see russia from a random island in alaska gave her foreign policy credentials? When bush was coming from texas, he could literally make that argument with illegal aliens and heavy trade with Mexico. I'm not sure what her logic was.
I work with a bunch of pretty wealthy people (the lowest compensated is around 200k per year) and of the 10 or so people in my group with an iphone, every single one of them has jail broken it for tethering, mobile hotspot usage, or many other apps that are not in the app store. I'm not saying many of these things can't be done now without jailbreaking, but often they cost a lot more and feel like quite the rip off.
I only mention their money because you may say they are nerds with too much time on their hands or are very cheap, but that isn't the case.
Just because you can't find a reason or surround yourself with people that don't doesn't mean it isn't a popular way to get some decent features on the iphone.
I will actually be not upgrading my phone from now until I switch to android because of this, granted I have had several reasons for the android switch recently and this is just one more. I'm sure it will be worked around but it isn't very meaningful to have to fight to use my phone in reasonable ways.
no no, put on your jobs-ophile glasses and you will notice that when quartz has a pixel become blue, it is a richer, warmer, more beautiful blue than when any other product does it.
wow, you are absolutely wrong. I am american, just checked the site, and ran most slavic language countries. Belarus was the only one where Opera had major pentration. Any particular reason they should be considered? For most countries, it was Firefox, with Chrome and IE splitting the diff. Opera was some meaningless 4th.
are you sure your color blindness didn't have you confusing firefox's orange with Opera's red on the site? I think you confused the two browsers is all and I could see that happening (had a boss who was color blind and his spreadsheets and programs had really weird colors).
can you name a single corporate piece of software that has broken because the web browser was upgraded? I can't, not since sites started being standards compliant and not worrying about internet explorer. And those are all internal.
If you have so much trouble running a desktop rollout when the web browser upgrades, you should probably think about quitting and going somewhere not full of incompetence (or you are a source of the incompetence, both are equally possible).
Here is the easy solution so you don't have to complain and stick your users with a POS browser:
have IE and firefox on there, where IE is used for those few shitty times when you absolutely need a POS browser because you have coded for non-compliant browsers. That is what we used to do in my firm, and then some idiot in IT got all huffy about how firefox wasn't "proper" and how some internal sites couldn't be run on it (you know, the sites that people access 5% of the time for one off purposes) and we lost a useful fast web browser.